LOCATIONS - OK, a brief note here on our locations situation: We had over 30 locations on this movie! Justin took my wish list and went nuts (with help from Jake and his beard) locking down some great places. But as we shot we needed to have these locations set up before we showed up and Justin can’t be multiple places at once, though he does make you wonder sometimes but I can verify: He is human… so we needed people on locations to make everything run smooth and Jessica and Jon made that happen. 

JON DODART, Locations Manager and Local Casting Director - As you have read, we had the amazing Sobos do our main casting out of LA but because we were working under the SAG Ultra Low Budget Agreement, we could use non-SAG actors and decided to use local talent from St. George. We needed someone to help assist us and run some local casting sessions. We heard about this guy Jon Dodart and we thought he could assist us and just kind of help out.

Well… we meet Dodart and it’s clear right away that he’s got his stuff together and could be more than just a casting assistant. So… we end up turning local casting over to him and then as we get closer to production and we realize the asset Dodart is, we have him help with locations as well!!! Justin and Jake had set up a lot of the places we shot at but Jon stepped in and helped manage out relationships with these locations. He was great!

On local casting, we got some great options and along with Jessica (see below) Jon made our locations all work. He also found our extras and made sure we had enough (often more than enough) to fill out the scenes where they were needed. 

Dodart just gets it done. He talks a good game, but also backs it up. When he said he could deliver, he delivered. Expect more from this guy as his career progresses. 

JESSICA MERRILL, Assistant Locations Manager - Jessica came on to basically be Dodart’s assistant, but it became clear that she’d be much, much more. There were times when Jon couldn’t be there and Jessica did the job! She stepped up and was a HUGE factor in us being able to finish this movie on schedule and on budget. Jessica was great, she did a lot of the ground work on locations and was also just a great overall support and she did a lot that was very helpful to me personally and I won’t ever forget it. Her enthusiasm and commitment to our project was inspiring. Jessica would be welcome on any project we do…

TERRI SAUNDERS, Assistant Local Casting Director and Production Assistant - I met Terri at Dixie (hey, another Dixie connection) and knew of her passion for filmmaking and production. She let us know right away that we could count on her for any help we’d need. She came in and worked hard and helped Jon at our casting sessions and then getting our extras to set. When the casting was pretty much set up, Terri jumped in and helped out wherever she was needed on set. I’d look over and see Terri helping out craft or helping Lan with BTS work. Basically Terri was passionate, as I knew she would be, and helped make the movie tick. I’ll never forget Terri and what she did for us on the movie.